The Application Of Logic
by PoorQueequeg
Summary: "It was nothing out of the ordinary when one of her instructors at Starfleet Academy should be a Vulcan, extraordinary though this particular Vulcan was in that his mother was human."


Nyota Uhura is at the top of the class in Xenolinguistics for a very good reason. She can speak over a dozen Earth languages alone and when, as a small child, she scored in the ninetieth percentile for her age group, her parents enrolled her in a specialist school where the curriculum included from the very beginning comprehensive study of the Vulcan language. Vulcan had been widely taught at Earth schools for decades and with good reason. The Vulcans had been a spacefaring race far longer than Humans and indeed many other races so it made sense that their language had become a kind of lingua franca. As Nyota's studies evolved from mere communication to compex linguistics, the study of Vulcan became ever more necessary as the majority of key theoretical texts on interspecies communication had been written by Vulcan academics. It followed that, as is wont to happen with linguists, Nyota had been immersed in Vulcan culture and customs for most of her life and was consequently as at ease as any human could be with that enigmatic race. It was therefore nothing out of the ordinary when one of her instructors at Starfleet Academy should be a Vulcan, extraordinary though this particular Vulcan was in that his mother was _human_.

Later, Nyota might consider that it was because of his human mother that Spock was so well respected by the feminine contingent at the Academy and that, as far as a Vulcan might ever reciprocate, that _respect_ was mutual. As time passed she had occasion to notice the vagaries of his demeanour and how when interacting with a human female, his voice was ever so slightly softer, his expression less severe. Nyota may have become less familiar with the subtlety of Spock's mood - something she would never dare discuss with him for all his insistence on the expurgation of emotion, at all times and which under no circumstances ever faltered – if her instructor had not suggested she spend time listening to transmissions in the long range sensor lab.

"You may find it invaluable in improving your comprehension of vernacular Klingon," Spock had informed her with the slightest quirk of his brow. "I think you will find it differs greatly from the classical language used in opera." Of which, it transpired, her tutor was an admirer - in as much, of course, as a Vulcan could 'admire' music.

So Nyota was not unaware of the gravity of her faux pas when one evening, while examining some data transmissions in the lab, her fingers accidentally brushed against those of her by-now-former tutor as she reached across the console. Abashed, she withdrew her hand and uttered an appropriate apology in Vulcan. Looking up through her lashes at Spock's face she could not help but note the strangeness of his reaction. His expression bore none of the mild distaste she had expected but something else, something... unanticipated. His eyelids flickered ever so slightly and she found him looking her right in the eye, his lips parted as the faintest of sighs escaped him. It was so quiet as to be virtually imperceptible if not for the fact that Cadet Uhura possessed exceptional aural sensitivity.

"There is no need to apologise," he had murmured in that soft, gentle voice and Nyota, struck inexplicably dumb for someone so well versed in the art of verbal communication, merely smiled ever so slightly in response.

Since it was the Vulcan custom to abjure even the slightest acknowledgement of such impropriety, Nyota refrained from then on from apologising if their fingers ever touched again, as they might, for example, if Spock was, for instance, passing her a bowl of tea.

"Tea has been cultivated in east Africa for several hundred years," she told him as she poured the steaming liquid from the pot into his cup. "See the red color? That's very typical of African teas." Spock had given her that look that she had grown to cherish as he took the cup from her and sipped it slowly.

"Most fragrant," he commented. She smiled gently in response before sitting down opposite and continuing their discussion on dominant discourses in contemporary Vulcan logic.

Nyota developed a great appreciation for the nuances of logic and found as time went on that she was able to apply it with great effect to her own interactions and experiences. For example, despite the dire state of Klingon-Federation relations, there were on occasion recitals of Klingon music at the San Francisco Symphony Hall. It had not struck her as odd when Spock had mentioned an upcoming performance. It seemed in fact utterly logical given his interest in the genre. Since she too, however recently, had developed a similar appreciation it seemed utterly logical that she might go to the concert and wasn't it logical therefore that they might run into one another while they were there? And might one therefore not consider it logical, given the duration and nature of their acquaintance, that at the end of the concert Spock might escort her back to the Academy residences? Was it not equally logical then, that when their fingers should coincidentally brush together they might not, as could be expected of two persons less well acquainted, feel inclined to pull their hands apart but instead perhaps clasp them gently together?

Nyota found that logic did not possess, as she had always imagined, the sour countenance of a dowager aunt but rather the tender gaze of an attractive young man in his prime. Logic was, according to the particular Vulcan that instructed her "A prism that can be turned as needed so as to refract light upon a particular situation according to the context thereof thereby enabling the individual to modify their response to suit the conditions..."

Nyota had long since stopped listening. It would be logical to suppose that her human intellect was no longer able to process the complexities of the point her companion was making. In reality she was not and would never be utterly convinced of the logic of his kissing her but so long as he was convinced of it, that was sufficient for her. He was after all her superior and following the proper chain of command was part and parcel of life in Starfleet. Spock was gratified that Nyota's grasp of logic was sufficient for her to appreciate the benefits of _his_ quarters over hers and as such was that night sufficiently gratified.


End file.
